INSIDE THE BELLEVUE
CEMETERY
LAWRENCE, MASSACHUSETTS
Frankpalermo.tripod.com
BELLEVUE ENTRANCE
The Bellevue was established in
1847, at 170 May Street in
Lawrence, MA.
Styled after Boston’s Mount
Auburn Cemetery, founded eleven
years earlier, it remains one of few
landscaped cemeteries in the area.
It was added to the list of National
Historic Places in 2003.
Most of the people covered in this report died after 1865, but
the major events in their lifetimes took place before.
The hearse House
The Hearse House was where the
hearse and horses were stored to
carry a coffin to the gravesite.
Although officially named the
“Hearse House”, the title is currently
disputed; the building may have
served simply as the Gatehouse; its
current purpose is for housing of
records and clerical work.
A LANDSCAPED CEMETERY
Stunning terraces and granite
staircases are found
throughout the grounds, a
tribute to Victorian standards
of nature and architecture.
(The winter season pays little
justice to the cemetery’s beauty- in
just a few weeks when everything is
green, it is easy to forget one is in
the heart of a thriving city.)
From the top of the hill, the terraces drop away and the city
can be seen on the horizon’s edge.
This empty area in the middle of the cemetery is a filled-in pond.
Victorian era landscaped cemeteries more resembled parks than
the somber graveyards of previous times.
The cemetery is open to the public
from dawn to dusk every day, and
people coming to pay their respects are
always welcome, as well as artists,
historians and photographers.
Official tours and cleanups frequently
take place on holidays like Memorial
Day and Veteran’s Day. Tours are also
offered in the fall, surrounding
Lawrence’s participation in the Civil
War.
SOME OF THE OLDEST GRAVES
Anne’s grave is interesting- little
is known about her life, other
than she was previously buried
elsewhere and reinterred in the
Bellevue.
Anne Miriam Barnes
(1837)
Both of these stones are slate.
Most of the stones in the
Bellevue are marble or granite,
which was traditional for the
post colonial and Victorian era.
Phebe Merrill (1847)
A close up of the masonry on Merrill’s stone shows an
urn and willow, common headstone motifs.
Residents of the Bellevue are representative of common
communities at the time. Many church founders, early
politicians, and Civil War veterans are buried there, as well as
teachers and those who established schools.
There are also many charitable communal plots, which served
to give dignified burial grounds to veterans, mill workers, and
the poor.
The Pauper’s Lot, seen below, is one of the earliest in the area.
RELIGIOUS FOUNDERS
At one point in time, Lawrence
was known as “the city of
churches”. The Bellevue was
founded as a Protestant
cemetery, and many pastors,
reverends, and church founders
reside within its grounds.
George Littlefield (1901) was one of
the
Lawrence Universalist Church
founders. He was also a Civil War
veteran.
The Reverend Packard founded the
Grace Episcopal Church, the oldest
church in Lawrence (built in 1851). The
church is still used today, and stands
on Jackson Street on the edge of the
common.
Packard also founded the Rose and
Thistle Society, a relief fund that aided
in the burial of poor Episcopals,
specifically of English (rose) and
Scottish (thistle) descent.
CHARITABLE ORGANIZATIONS
Above is the Rose and Thistle Monument. The smaller marker in the
foreground was purchased by a member for a small fee.
Organizations like this would generally ask for a few cents a week, on a sliding
scale based on need, and provided an early form of burial insurance.
The Pacific Mills Relief Society lot nearby offered a similar service to indigent
mill workers. That there are few burials in the lot show evidence that although
these options were available, families with means preferred to purchase their
own plots (no different than today).
The Pemberton Mill collapse in April
of 1860 was probably the most
devastating industrial disaster in the
region. In the midst of a shift, the
mill, overburdened with machinery,
caved in on the workers and
subsequently caught fire. Many
workers were killed, a lot of them
young women and children.
The Pemberton Monument
in the Bellevue provided
burial service for those who
were unclaimed after the
disaster.
SCHOOLS
Many Lawrence school founders are buried in the Bellevue.
John Rodman Rollins, a Newburyport native and Dartmouth graduate,
founded the Rollins School.
The Wetherbee School is named
for Emily Greene Wetherbee, who
taught there for years. Like many
teachers of her time, she died a
spinster (in the 1800s, teachers
were not usually allowed to
marry), and the Clarkes added her
to the family plot.
It was common for families to
provide for people in situations
like hers. The Clarkes also took
care that the school be named for
her.
CIVIL WAR HEROES
Reverend John W. Adams (1832-1915)
Adams served as chaplain in the Civil
War for the 2nd NH Regiment from 186365. While he was a New Hampshire and
later Methuen resident, he opted for
burial in Lawrence. Some speculate this
was because of the cemetery’s
prominence at the time.
George Bodwell aided in the capture of
Jefferson Davis, President of the
Confederacy in the Civil War.
Arthur T. Shuyler (1866) was a member of the famous 54th
regiment, the all black troops showcased in the movie “Glory”. His
mother was an “Indian doctress from New York, his father an
escaped slave from Virginia.” Shuyler was a Lawrence resident.
Moulton Batchelder served first as 2nd Lieutenant for the
40th Mass Volunteers and then as 1st Lieutenant for the
6th Mass. He later went on to be a detective in the
sensational Lizzie Borden case.
Sumner H. Needham is a little
known soldier from the Civil War.
Although Luther Ladd of Lowell is
widely known as the first casualty
of the war, Needham was actually
the first to fall. While not involved
in a battle, he received mortal
wounds in the Baltimore riots only
a week after the war was
declared.
Needham’s Monument,
commissioned by the city of
Lawrence in 1862, is the oldest
Civil War monument in the
country.
The Needham GAR Post (Post
39) is one of the oldest Civil
War posts in the US. It
provided burial services for
indigent soldiers in good
standing.
The term GAR stands for Grand
Army of the Republic, and their flagholding markers grace the graves of
Civil War veterans.
Charles Hammond is another veteran
buried in the Bellevue. He, his brother
and father enlisted in the war as
Confederates, but Hammond jumped
sides and fought for the North. After the
war he worked as a salesman for Cold
Spring Breweries, but succumbed to what
Victorians termed “nostalgia” (today posttraumatic- stress- disorder), and killed
himself.
William Sharrock’s war story is
particularly ironic. He enlisted in
Mass Heavy Artillery, Company F,
and survived many devastating
battles including Cold Harbor and
Gettysburg, sustaining only two
injuries.
After returning from the war, he was
participating in a Fourth of July
celebration on the Lawrence
Common in 1865 when a cannon
misfired and he lost both arms.
Sharrock later went on to
become an artist, painting
watercolors, and was also
the city messenger. His
obituary states that he
“accomplished more with
no arms than with”!
MY TOUR GUIDES
Local historian Joseph Bella of Methuen and
Chairwoman of the Bellevue Cemetery Elizabeth
Charlton provided me with a personal tour of the
cemetery. While regular tours are not advertised,
both Beth and Joe are more than happy to walk
the grounds and provide animated local history to
anyone expressing interest.
www.eagletribune.com 24.9.11
My tour of the Bellevue covers only a small
corner of the cemetery’s grounds, and even
then barely cameos the lives of those I
researched. The cemetery is comprehensive
of the community and the times, but much
more professional research is still needed to
document the stories of the grounds and the
residents.
Unlike cemeteries such as Mount Auburn,
historical information is not currently readily
available to the public. However, historians
like Mr. Bella and Mrs. Charlton enjoy
offering intimate tours and information, and
are very passionate.
If you do visit the grounds, wear sturdy
shoes and bring a camera- the Bellevue
welcomes you!
CREDITS
Bella, Joseph G., Lawrence Civil War Memorial
Guard, Secretary, Historian
Charlton, Elizabeth, Bellevue Chairwoman
Wadsworth, H. A., A History of Lawrence, MA.
Lawrence Eagle Steam Job. 1880.
@SicPress.com. Methuen, MA 2012